Re: [PATCH] printf: add %#s alias to %b

[Chet Ramey]

On 9/5/23 3:58 PM, enh wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 1, 2023 at 6:59 AM Chet Ramey <chet.ramey@case.edu> wrote:

> > I think you'll find that, regardless of its origins, there are more scripts
> > using the %b specifier than you think.
>
> i'd personally never heard of printf(1) %b before this thread, but
> debian code search agrees with you:

It's a POSIX invention dating from at least 1991 (P1003.2-D11).

The POSIX guidance to use it as a portable way to replace SysV echo has
dated from the same time. It's a pretty big lift to suddenly invalidate
all that prior art. ("POSIX giveth, and POSIX taketh away.").

--
``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
                 ``Ars longa, vita brevis'' - Hippocrates
Chet Ramey, UTech, CWRU    chet@case.edu    http://tiswww.cwru.edu/~chet/